Also renting non-scalable hardware is a perfectly viable option with costs more similar to owning it. Renting non-scalable hardware makes the same change from CAPEX into OPEX.
This is trending into hyperbole. a c6g.metal at AWS is $21,502 for a 3 year all upfront reserved instance. You're telling me you can pay just $21 for 3 years to get a 64 core/128gb machine racked in a datacenter?
More generally, if you are renting entire servers, you are not on the scalable part of the cloud. You are getting something much closer to a colocated machine than to a lambda, and paying just a 3 to 4 times mark-up over a rented server (where the owner will care about the hardware, not you).
And, of course, you have to compute your network usage on the cloud. It's almost certainly already included on the renting.
Then you talk about the bureaucracy an organization might have to provision new machines, or provide elasticity, and the hinderance it has on your development velocity.
It's at this scale the benefits of cloud really shine. The improvement to your development velocity, the shift from large CAPEX purchases to monthly opex, and the ease at which you can shift infrastructure direction.
It's similar to why a lot of businesses rent office space vs buying it outright. Or why you might pay for Bon Appetit to manage your cafeterias vs doing it yourself.